3 Answers
3

It seems like you can get a huge bonus for putting certain buildings together and creating a "Specialty District," although I've also seen this called a "Combo."

There's a pretty exhaustive list of parts of the game in this Google Doc spreadsheet, which might be enlightening reading, although it's a bit dense.

I found a list of combos in this message board post. I don't believe it's 100% complete, but it might be enough to help you figure out what the pattern is:

Pleasure - Casino, Arcade, Bowling Alley

Health - Hospital, Sports Gym, Spa/Jpn Rest

Shopping - Supermarket, Boutique, Jeweler

H. Springs - Jpn Rest, Woods, Lake

Culture - Jeweler, Art Museum, Movie Thtr

Gourmet - Sushi Bar, Chinese Rest, Bar

Student - Trade School, Steakhouse, Diner

Fashion - Boutique, Art Museum, Drugstore

Business - Office, Office, City Hotel

Intellect - Bookstore, Trade School, Art Museum

Geek - Elec Shp, Anime Shp, Game Shp

Kids - Toy Str, Park, Game Shp

Tourist - Woods, Mountains, City Hotel/Jpn Rest

Local - Cake Shp, Greengrocer, Florist/Fish Monger

Industry - Scooter Shp, Car Dealer, College

Date - Theme Park, Zoo, Movie Thtr/Arcade

Sports - Stadium, Bsbll Field, Sports Gym

Nature - Pasture, Park, Woods/Lake

Lunch - Cafe, Deli, Bakery

Silicon - PC Shp, Mobile Shp, Game Co.

Ancient - Monument, Pagoda, Jpn Garden

Animal - Zoo, Pet Shp, Pasture

Media - Antenna, Concert Hall, TV Station

Fishy - Fishing Pond, Aquarium, Fish Monger

Hacker - Pizza Parlor, Fast Food, Security Co.

Rock - Record Str, Video Rental, Concert Hall

Ghost - Skyscraper, Skyscraper, Skyscraper/Antenna

Hollywood - Movie Thtr, Theme Park, Jeweler/Boutique

Special - Airport, TV Station, Office (M)

There's also this page which purports to have some help information on it, but it looks like it just might be a transcription of the help files in the game, so I don't know how much value that will add to you.

I also found this thread, which covers (I'm guessing) the Japanese version, but I bet the core gameplay is the same.

In one place I found a reference to something called a "house combo" but the tip was unsourced and I couldn't find any other reference to such a thing. If you're still stuck after mastering Specialty Districts, you might try to figure out if this is possible and how.

Adjacent buildings - simply building two businesses adjacent to each other increases their land value.

Adjacent plants - Many plants increase the land value of businesses they're next to.

Adjacent roads - Roads are one of the most effective land price boosters. They're also the only thing that can be built on an incline tile. (They're especially useful on the Caldera City map, where all those hills would otherwise be wasted space.)

Land Price Seed item - Using this item on a building instantly and permanently increases its land price. You can use up to 10 of them on a building before they're no longer effective.

Combos - Placing buildings in a combo configuration increases the land price of all buildings in the combo, and sometimes buildings adjacent to the combo (the amount of increase depends on the combo type). This page is an excellent resource with a complete combo list.

Layering combos, or placing multiple combos adjacent to one another is the most effective way to increase land price, and probably the only way to get to #1. For example, you can build Culture, Fashion and Intellect combos together by sharing an Art Museum between all three. Use a few Land Price Seeds on that Art Museum, and you'll hit #1 land price in no time.

Nature Combo

Your first source of high land prices would be the ones that rely on nature: H. Springs Combo (Jpn Rest.) and Tourist Combo (Jpn Rest./Hotel). These work best on most of the maps where you have a lot of 'dead' land area and can be very cheaply implemented provided that you get a Japanese Restaurant early. Set it something like the following

MMM
WWW
HJH
RRRRR

Where M can be mountains or a lake/river, W is woods either naturally or deliberately placed, H are your houses, and J is your Japanese Restaurant/Hotel. You can always reduce the layer of wood if you don't have the space, but this is great for filling small areas. Using a City Hotel instead of a Jpn. Rest. also lets you stack a Business Combo on top of it, for a massive 55% boost to land.

Business Combo

The Business Combo gives a whopping +35% land, easily the best. The only problem is that you'll end up with a redundant Office, but it's almost always worth it. I have about 4 of these in my most successful towns so far. The +30% product price makes them sandwich well with Jewelers, Car Dealers, and the Pleasure Combo.

Art Museum

Art Museums combo with a lot of cheap structures. Use the Art Museum combined with all of its combos to create a "downtown" rich man zone. Plop a Business Combo next to one and you'll easily get your Museum up into the $60k+ range. Combined with Land Price seeds, I got my Museum up to $100k+ LP, easily winning the #1 for land.